Should CAP Solo Wings be Only for Cadets?

[Major Carrales]

C'mon Dennis...just say you don't like solo wings and leave it at that.  Your arguments against them are quite insulting to more than a few here.  This can of worms you have opened on the "Flight attendant" thing is equally distasteful.

Since most CAP officers will never sport solo wings I think this is all sound and fury signifying nothing anyway.

Let's just call this topic finished.

[lordmonar]

No you don't give them options. you don't put a menu of 350 things in front of them & let them pick. What they'll ultimately do is choose something that sounds a little exciting, but safe; something they aren't scared of failing at.

The other side of that coin....is if you only offer them the hardest, best job as their only option and they fail....they will not be aware of any other meaningful jobs or careers.

If you have it ingrained in their head that nothing short of the stars is acceptable then eventually most will settle for less, but that tiny few that can make it will. If you give them safe outs & allow them to take the lazy way without even trying, then the best & the brightest aren't what show up to the big game.

Look up the Barbie sysndrom.   Women's health advocates hate models and Barbie dolls because they offer a image of perfection that is simply not attainable by a majority of the populace....but some will continue to try even to point of hurting themselves.  I am all for encouraging people to try as hard as they can for the best/coolest/highest paying carreers out there....but we all can't be pilots...someone has to serve dinner (and be there in case of emergencies  )...just like someone has to fix the engines, fuel the plane, load the baggage, sell the tickets, scan for bombs, schedule the fights and do all the paper work to make sure the passangers arrive safely and on time to their destinations.

Focusing only on pilots only makes all those other essantial workers into second class citezens.

Our cadets tend to be among the best & the brightest & we don't need to give them an opportunity for anything but greatness.

I would like to see what squadron you are in.....I would say that our cadets are more or less a sample of our communities....I have had the best and the brightest....and I have had rocks in uniform and everthing in-between.  We are not here for only the best and the brightest....we are here for all of our cadets.

If they stumble along the way or make another choice then that's on them, but we need to be driving them hard so that doesn't happen.

But your plan would just say....thanks for playing....we only train pilots here, and don't want or need anyone who can't or won't meet up to our expectations.

Far as it being a safety position... so is that kid that pulls the lever on the roller coaster & so is the 16yo lifeguard at the city pool, so is flight line on the 101... none of that needs a badge, and none of it is a thing to aspire to or recognize or incentivize. It is not where you push people to go.

Why do pilots "need" a badge but those other hard and important jobs don't?